Search - agree

 
 
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

30 Days in the Wilderness

What miracles will the incoming 44th President of the United States perform?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Dec 19, 2008

Let's pray to the Great Black One

In Tokyo, it's prudent to pray to the Great Black One if you want to improve your financial outlook for the coming year. Putting in a good word for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama wouldn't hurt as well, once you arrive at the Slope of the Great Black One, or Daikokuzaka, a back street minutes from...
LIFE
Dec 14, 2008

Stone Age Japan

This story spans 10,000 years, yet presents few recognizable individuals. Here's one:
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2008

Japan must offer more than free gas

The Friday extension of the special law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling mission in the Indian Ocean will prolong Japan's involvement in global antiterrorism efforts but both supporters and critics of the action agree the nation still has little to show for its efforts on the world...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2008

More serious violations out there

Regarding Grant Mahood's Dec. 7 letter, "Fingerprinting law is unjust": Since the new guidelines on fingerprinting foreigners at Japanese ports of entry were issued (November 2007), we have seen discussions for and against them in various forums, including The Japan Times. Some have branded such a practice...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2008

Students could use civics courses

I agree with the Dec. 5 article "Politicians failing to engage youth," but one main issue is ignored. As with most articles published about Japan's lack of political participation, this one neglects to address the school's role in citizens' political involvement. As an assistant language teacher (ALT),...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2008

Don't call it a surprise attack

Regarding the Dec. 8 editorial "Remember Pearl Harbor": I agree with the details of the editorial, but allow me to warn that even the Japanese subterfuge of breaking off negotiations at the time should not obscure the fact that the public and U.S. military in Hawaii were at least aware of the imminent...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 7, 2008

Tadao Ando: Icon and iconoclast

One of the first houses built by Japan's most famous architect, Tadao Ando, is centered around an open atrium. That sounds nice until you realize that the atrium forms the only "corridor" between each of the rooms. Fancy a hot cup of tea before bed on a rainy winter's night? You'll need an umbrella and...
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

Former ASDF chief makes sense

While I have no knowledge of facts concerning prewar Japan-U.S. relations that might have played a role in World War II, I totally agree with retired ASDF Gen. Toshio Tamogami that, in this troubled world, Japan should not be naive but should build a strong defense force and show itself as a world power...
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2008

Prepping a new climate deal

A two-week meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP14, is now under way in Poznan, Poland, with some 10,000 delegates and environmentalists from some 190 countries attending. The participants are supposed to discuss international efforts...
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2008

Dissing those who give Dalai Lama an ear

HONG KONG — The decision by China to cancel, or at least postpone, a summit meeting with the European Union scheduled this week in Lyon, France, is unprecedented and shows the extent of its unhappiness with the Europeans in general and with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in particular.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008

'WALL-E'

They say the best creators of science fiction are those able to extrapolate just a bit into the future. Think of William Gibson's descriptions of a wired, digitally interconnected world dominated by multinational corporations in 1984's "Neuromancer," or Terry Gilliam's imagining of a perpetual war on...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2008

North nuke verification must be in writing: Saiki

Negotiators on North Korea's denuclearization confirmed Wednesday that they will press Pyongyang during next week's six-party talks to agree to verify its nuclear disarmament in writing.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2008

Hillary has earned a place on the world stage

NEW YORK — So, why did he do it? What led U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to tap his former adversary, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to serve as his secretary of state, the face and voice of his foreign policy, his emissary to the world?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2008

Defense of an artist who had lived as a slave

NEW YORK — Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe. Liberated from the complexity of knowing too much about the cruel past, the young people of Eastern Europe's postcommunist generation seem uninterested in what their parents and grandparents endured.
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2008

Common sense versus PC

Presumably the recent remarks of former infrastructure minister Nariaki Nakayama about Japan being ethnically homogeneous were correctly reported. If so his remarks were tactless, in view of Japan's Ainu population, but also showed an ignorance of history. The Japanese are generally considered to be...
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 20, 2008

Dempster, Cubs agree to new deal

CHICAGO (AP) Ryan Dempster made the successful switch from closer to starter this season, winning 17 games and helping the Chicago Cubs compile the best record in the National League.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 18, 2008

Prejudice among obstacles facing non-Japanese tenants

With a falling population, a shrinking tax base and a shortage of carers for its increasing number of elderly, calls are growing for Japan to allow in a large influx of foreign workers to plug the gap. The question is: When they come, will they be able to find a place to stay?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2008

If America fades, who will lead the world?

SINGAPORE — Barack Obama's election comes at a moment when a new bit of conventional wisdom is congealing. It concerns the end of America's global dominance.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2008

Cash handout finding few fans

In 1999, the coalition government was bashed for what was dubbed "one of the silliest policy measures of the century."

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan